The whole of that day, which he afterwards did not know what had become of, he sat and talked with Hallveig. Not once did she smile at him. But there was in her look a charm which surpassed every smile. There was a warmth in her look and a secret confidence which put him at his ease. Her nearness filled him with a peculiar quivering consciousness of security. He felt that there was already a deep intimacy between him and this woman whom he did not know and yet knew.
The next day Ingolf went on his journey. When he gave Hallveig his hand at parting their eyes met. The look of both was firm and serious. Suddenly Hallveig smiled. Her eyes became bright with a beaming smile. All at once Ingolf perceived that there was something he had forgotten or neglected—something which could not be omitted. He stood there with her hand in his, uneasy and irresolute, quite otherwise than he was accustomed.
But he now already held her hand at departure and must go. Confused and dissatisfied with himself, and yet at the same time filled with a tremulous happiness, he went away. Ingolf did not forget Hallveig's solitary smile. He reflected much whether she had ever given any other man her smile, in the same way as she had to him. He did not believe it. But if she had, the man must die.
How Ingolf passed the year, before he returned to Hallveig, he did not know. It was quite unconsciously that he gave the memory of her time to grow and blossom in his soul. All that he knew about it was that every time he had resolved with himself that now he would go to Frode's house and visit her, his mind was filled with anxiety and unrest. He found no solid reason for waiting. His longing urged him almost irresistibly to make the journey. He was also quite certain that he ran a risk by postponing it. All the same he waited.
At a feast at Gaulum the previous autumn he had met Lopt. During the three days of the feast they had been inseparable. Quite involuntarily they had kept together. Once, when the talk had turned on Lopt's and Frode's affairs, Lopt said, smiling: "We cannot get my sister, Hallveig, married. She rejects all suitors." As Lopt spoke, Ingolf's heart began to beat violently and joyfully. The day seemed to expand around him and become beautiful. The colours of the heavens and earth crowded at once upon his sight. The air itself became fresh and reviving. He found no answer to make to Lopt's remark, and therefore pretended not to have heard him. Soon afterwards he began to talk of something else. But he did not succeed in deceiving Lopt, who, when alone, smiled to himself. Soon after Ingolf's meeting with Lopt, Leif returned from his Viking expedition. Ingolf had enough to do, and was for a time cut off from all possibility of travelling.
But when the agreement with Haasten was settled, and the journey to Iceland to look for a residence determined on, it became at once as impossible for Ingolf to postpone the decisive interview with Hallveig as it had been for him before to resolve on a visit. Ingolf, according to his custom, first spoke with his father on the subject. Orn was highly pleased, and declared himself in every way satisfied with his choice. "Frode," he said, "is rich and well-born. It is time that you settled in life. Leif and you can celebrate your marriage in the autumn. You should not put off the journey for a day. You can go, my son."
Ingolf went to Leif and asked for his companionship on a journey without disclosing further the object or the direction of it. Leif needed no pressing. He was always ready for a journey, he did not care where. If Ingolf did not reveal to him his object and the place whither he was bound, it was because he had good reasons for concealing it.
The brothers left home with a select but not very numerous retinue. Leif received a strong impression that this mysterious journey was of great importance. Could it possibly be a wooing expedition? Leif studied Ingolf closely, and came to the conclusion that it was. It amused him to guess whom Ingolf had pitched upon. He could not make out. In that respect he knew nothing of Ingolf. Had Ingolf really fallen in love dumbly and silently? Leif could not picture Ingolf to himself as an enamoured suitor. In secret he was immensely amused at his brother's seriousness and taciturnity. But he showed great caution in his behaviour towards him. He observed that a great deal was at stake for Ingolf. He surmised that his quiet demeanour was not so genuine as it usually was.
When one evening they reached Frode's house, Leif did not guess that they had already arrived at their journey's end. But as soon as he saw Hallveig, he knew; and he was immediately filled with a warm and brotherly affection for her.
When Hallveig heard that Ingolf had come, she at once knew the reason. She put on her finest dress, and displayed her most valuable ornaments. Any one might think what they would; for her it was a festal day.